


Been To Hell

by StreetSoldierin



Series: Hollywood Undead One Shots [3]
Category: Hollywood Undead (Band)
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Angst, Danny Has A Secret, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Jorel aka fight me bitch, M/M, Past Abuse, Past Domestic Violence, Past Relationship(s), Platonic Relationships, and his past comes back to haunt him, look like cinnamon rolls but will actually kill you if you touch Danny, protective!Jorel, the other guys are A+ friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 08:48:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14712938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StreetSoldierin/pseuds/StreetSoldierin
Summary: There were some things that Jorel had always wondered about when it came to Danny. When he had first met him and then heard him sing for the first time, he had been blown away. That soft, angelic voice wasn't what you expected from a man like this. Maybe Danny wasn't the tallest, but he was fucking shredded and his face just basically screamed California-Sunnyboy.It didn't take Jorel and the rest of the band members long to realize though that Danny was in fact not the arrogant fucker you would expect behind a face like that, but on the contrary was a sweet and humble man and becoming friends with him came as natural as breathing.It had felt like Danny brought back the light and life that they had lost over all the drama with Aron. It was just a talent of his, Jorel thought, filling a room with sunshine whenever he walked in.But wherever the sun shone, shadows were cast, and Danny was no exception in that.





	Been To Hell

There were some things that Jorel had always wondered about when it came to Danny. When he had first met him and then heard him sing for the first time, he had been blown away. That soft, angelic voice wasn't what you expected from a man like this. Maybe Danny wasn't the tallest, but he was fucking shredded and his face just basically screamed California-Sunnyboy.   
   
It didn't take Jorel and the rest of the band members long to realize though that Danny was in fact not the arrogant fucker you would expect behind a face like that, but on the contrary was a sweet and humble man and becoming friends with him came as natural as breathing.   
It had felt like Danny brought back the light and life that they had lost over all the drama with Aron. It was just a talent of his, Jorel thought, filling a room with sunshine whenever he walked in.   
   
But wherever the sun shone, shadows were cast, and Danny was no exception in that.   
It was subtle things, and it had taken Jorel some time to notice, but once he knew what to look for it couldn't have been more obvious.   
The most obvious thing was that Danny flinched at loud noises or raised voices. Granted, that was not a strange thing by itself, but the intensity of Danny getting startled went straight through the roof sometimes; like that one evening in the dressing room when Johnny had yelled at Charlie to shut the fuck up and Danny had recoiled so fast and hard that he had hit his head on one of the locker doors.   
   
Then there was the moving around thing. Actually, the fans had caught up on that faster than Jorel, but one day he had been bored and looked through comments on an interview they had done and he realized that many of the comments about Danny talked about the fact that he could not sit still.   
Since then Jorel started paying attention, and he really had to wonder how he could have not seen it until then.   
Whenever Danny was around him and the other guys, he could sit perfectly still and relax, but in interviews, he was literally all over the place. It was beyond Jorel how someone could manage to change positions or fix his clothes so many times. Not to talk about the knee bouncing thing.   
   
Another thing Jorel had noticed was that despite the fact that Danny was nobody to back down from a fight – he certainly didn't go looking for them, either, but if someone had a row with him he didn't yell back any less – he rarely fought with Johnny. Which was strange, really, because if someone asked, Jorel would say that Johnny was the one that everyone argued with the most, especially early in the mornings when he hadn't had a coffee yet. Mostly those fights were just teasing and fun, but Danny rarely participated.   
   
Oh, and the nightmares. Jorel had just found out very recently, but from what he had observed Danny rarely slept through the nights. He was always the first one up, and Jorel had always thought he was just an early bird, until one night he had woken up to go to the bathroom and found Danny sitting in the kitchen, wide awake at three am. "Nightmare," he had simply stated. And after that, there had been several times when Jorel had seen or heard him up during the night.   
   
So, those were just a few things that Jorel had noticed about Danny. He was a little curious, of course he was, but if there was anything Danny wanted to tell him then he would, and so he never pressed. They all had their quirks and that was fine.   
   
One day, though, something strange happened. And this time it was actually so strange that they couldn't just ignore it.   
They were currently on tour again, finishing off the last shows in the US before flying over to Europe. The mood couldn't have been better, the shows were great, the parties were great, everything was working out and they were all just enjoying themselves big time.   
   
Until that one day in Joliet, Illinois. They had two days left until the next show and seeing as there were no interview appointments or anything the like, they had decided to spend the day in the city.   
It had been a fun day, just walking around and exploring the place, entering weird shops and – of course – checking out the best bars.   
   
It was late afternoon and they were heading towards a busy looking street to find a place to eat when someone called out Danny's name. They all turned around to see a guy around their age approaching. He was tall and broad, covered in tattoos and wearing a snapback over what seemed like almost completely shaved hair.   
Jorel had never seen the guy before, so he turned to Danny to ask if he knew who it was, but the expression on Danny's face made him pause. He had gone ghostly pale and Jorel noticed that he was clutching his sleeves like he sometimes did during interviews.   
   
The guy stopped in front of them now and nodded towards the rest of the group as greeting. Then his blue eyes fixed on Danny. "I've tried calling, you know." That was a weird way to start a conversation, but what about this wasn’t weird? Danny looked about ready to bail while the other guy stared him down with an intensity in his gaze that made even Jorel uncomfortable.    
   
"Care to introduce us?" Charlie asked, eyeing Danny a bit curiously. The stranger smiled. "Yeah, Dan, how about that?"   
That nickname, so naturally rolling off that guy's tongue. Who the hell was he? But Danny did not seem keen on introducing them. "What do you want?" His voice sounded strained.   
The stranger eyed him up and down. "I just wanna talk."   
   
"We can give you guys some space, if you want," Charlie proposed, but Jorel took a step towards Danny as the latter tensed up at those words. Something was wrong here and he wouldn't leave Danny alone with that guy.   
   
"No," Danny finally said, voice steady. "There's nothing to talk about. Leave me alone." He turned on his heels and walked away, leaving the stranger stunned for a few seconds. He recovered quickly though and made to follow Danny, but Jorel was faster and got up into his face. "You heard him." Fuck, this guy was huge, but Jorel didn't even blink. He wasn't scared, and if things went horribly wrong then there was always Johnny at his back who matched the stranger's build.   
   
The guy scoffed. "Oh, please. He's just playing hard to get, he always does that."   
"Oh yeah? And who the fuck are you to judge that?"   
The stranger did not back down, he just crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Ryan. Thought you had that figured out by now."   
But Jorel was tired of all the bullshit, he had no idea what was going on, he was hungry, and he just wanted this guy gone. "Listen, Ryan, I've never even heard your name before and to be honest I don't really care who you are. Danny wants to be left alone, so step the fuck off."    
   
He turned around and made to follow Danny, and Dylan who had already gone after him, but then the guy – Ryan, whatever – spoke again. "He never told you he has a boyfriend?"   
Jorel froze, as did Johnny and Charlie. He turned and shot Ryan a look, but the guy seemed more amused by now. So Jorel just shrugged it off. "I don't care. Stay away from him." And this time, he really left. After they had walked for a while they turned to see if Ryan was following them, but mercifully he had disappeared.   
   
Charlie was the first one to speak again. "What the actual fuck was that?"   
"I have no clue," Jorel admitted. "Danny never said anything about a boyfriend."   
"I didn't even know he was gay."   
"He isn't. He's bi."   
Both Johnny and Charlie gaped at Jorel. "How come you know that and we don't?"   
"Easy." Jorel looked at his phone and saw that Dylan had sent him the location of the place Danny and he were at. "I asked him."   
   
They started walking into the direction where the place was supposed to be, Johnny and Charlie apparently baffled by this new information. "I mean, it doesn't make any difference of course. It's just that he never said anything in that direction," Charlie said.   
"He told me he doesn't feel the need to go around and tell people," Jorel replied. "And I think he's absolutely right. You'd never walk up to a person and be like "By the way, I'm straight, hope you're okay with that." He hasn't been lying about it and if it had ever come up he would have told you. Just the fact that it never came up tells you how unimportant it is, really."   
"That's all very well, but still doesn't explain the Ryan guy," Johnny pointed out. Yeah, that Jorel couldn't figure out either.   
   
They found Dylan and Danny sitting at a table and joined them. After they had all ordered it went silent for a few moments. Everyone knew the conversation was inevitable.   
Jorel was the first to speak. "So, you never told us you have a boyfriend."   
Danny lifted his gaze from the table, his eyebrows crunching together. "Ryan is not my boyfriend. Not anymore, at least." He sighed. "Look, guys, I get that you have questions, but I really don't wanna talk about it. Ryan and I used to date, we broke up on bad terms. I have no idea what he's doing here, and that's it."   
   
The waitress came back with the food and Danny stabbed his quite violently with the fork.   
"When were you dating?" Johnny apparently wasn't ready to drop the topic.   
Danny held his gaze for a few seconds, then dropped it again. "I was like twenty-five, and we were together for about three years."   
"But we already knew you back then," Charlie said. "How come we never met him?"   
"I really don't wanna talk about it," Danny replied and demonstratively stabbed his food again. "Please drop it."   
   
The rest of the evening had a weird atmosphere to it. Danny wasn't in a great mood, he kept zoning out and barely talked, and when they went to another bar he didn't even order anything to drink.   
After some time, he sighed and stood up. "I'm gonna head back to the bus, guys."   
Jorel raised an eyebrow. "You alright?" But Danny just nodded and waved him off. "Yeah, just tired. Not really in the mood today. I'll just go and get some sleep."   
"Sure thing," Jorel replied and watched as Danny grabbed his coat and shrugged it on. "Do you want me to come back with you?"   
"No, you guys go and have fun. I'll be good again tomorrow." And with that, he left.   
   
When he was gone, Dylan sighed and shook his head. "Something's just not right about this. Whatever went down with that Ryan dude, it's still bugging Danny."   
"Yeah," Jorel agreed. "But we can't force him to talk if he doesn't wanna. Let's just see how he is tomorrow."   
They all agreed and went back to their drinks.   
   
Despite the incident still dimming the mood, they managed to have a pretty good evening. They had a little competition as to who could get the most free drinks (Dylan won that one by far) and they played darts (which ended in them getting kicked out of the bar because Dylan was so tipsy from all the free drinks that he kept chucking the darts anywhere but the board).   
   
When they wandered off to find a new bar, Jorel's phone rang. Curious as to why someone would call him at this hour, he dug it out of his pocket and squinted his eyes at the display. Danny.   
"What the hell," he mumbled to himself and picked up. "Hey."   
"Jay, listen," Danny said quietly, and Jorel immediately was alarmed at how stressed he sounded. "I need you guys to come back to the bus, now. I don't know why, but Ryan is here and it's creeping me out."   
"Wait, hold on. Ryan is in the bus?"   
"No, no, he's outside. He's been staring at the bus for like fifteen minutes now."   
   
"Okay, we're coming back." He signaled to the other guys to turn in the direction they had come from. They shot him questioning looks, but followed him. "Do you think he'll do anything? And how did he know where the bus is?"   
"I don't know," Danny answered. "Maybe he followed me. I really don't know."   
"It's alright, just stay on the line with me and tell me if anything happens." He turned away from the phone a second and said to the other guys, "We're heading back to the bus. Apparently Ryan is stalking Danny."    
   
There were shouts of outrage from the other guys, but Jorel quickly turned his attention back to his phone. "Okay, the fact that that guy is there and you felt the need to call us tells me you're alarmed enough to see him as a threat. I need you to be honest here, Danny, do you think he might be trying to hurt you?"   
There was a short pause, but then Danny sighed and said, "Yes." Jorel cursed colorfully. "Anything else that you should tell me?"   
"I don't know, I..." Danny broke off. "He's moving. I think he's coming here."   
"Whatever you do, don't let him in."   
"Do you think I'm stupid? Of course not."   
There was a banging sound in the background. "Danny, open up."   
"Don't let him know you're there," Jorel said and picked up his pace.   
"If he followed me here then he knows anyways," Danny whispered back.   
"Yeah, but if you think he could get violent then speaking with him through a closed door might provoke him. You could be sleeping."   
"Alright."   
   
They didn't speak for the next few minutes, but Jorel heard that Ryan persistently knocked on the door, asking Danny to open up. They were still a good twenty minutes away from the bus though.   
Eventually, the knocking stopped. "Did he leave?" Jorel asked.   
"I'm not sure, he..." Danny was interrupted by a loud crashing sound. "Shit."   
"What the fuck happened?"   
But Danny was talking to someone else now. "What the fuck are you doing? Get out!"   
"I just wanted to fucking talk, and you keep blowing me off!"   
   
"Shit," Jorel cursed and broke into a run. "We have to hurry, guys! He just broke into the bus."   
He kept holding the phone to his ear, but all he could make out was some words and yelling. Then the line broke.    
   
Jorel cursed the dirtiest words that came to his mind, and then he sprinted as fast as he could.   
   
                                                 ~~~~~~~   
   
It took them only ten minutes to get to the bus, and when they arrived there they could already hear the yelling.   
Jorel stepped through the smashed glass of the bus door and leaped up the stairs. The front part was a fucking mess. Papers were strewn all over the floor and whatever had been on the kitchen counter was either smashed or hurled across the room. Jorel didn't stop to look at the mess though, he was far too concentrated in the yelling that came from the back of the bus.   
He passed the bunks – curtains had been ripped off and some lamps were smashed – and threw open the door to the back. What he saw made his blood boil up with anger. "Let him go, you fucking bastard!"   
   
Danny was lying on his back, Ryan sitting on his chest and pinning his arms down by kneeling on them. Danny was thrashing and kicking, but Ryan was by far too heavy of a guy to throw off.   
When Jorel had barged in, Ryan's head had whipped around to look at him, and now he flashed him a humorless grin. "This is none of your business. Dannyboy likes it rough, you know."   
"Get off me," Danny growled in response, but Ryan just grabbed him by the hair and forced his head back.    
   
Jorel didn't hesitate for a second before he tackled the guy off Danny. He knew he didn't stand a big chance, he was what felt like half that guy's size after all, but it didn't matter. The only important thing right now was to get Danny out of here.   
Ryan howled in pain when he crashed to the ground underneath Jorel, and the latter saw with no small amount of satisfaction that Danny had already done a pretty good job on him. He had not gone down without a fight, that much was obvious.   
   
Ryan threw Jorel off himself and got to his feet, but Jorel was just as quick in getting up again. By that time, the other guys were in the room and Ryan seemed to realize that his situation was pretty hopeless. Maybe he could take Jorel on alone, but not four of them.   
He growled and lunged for Danny, who was currently trying to pull himself up using the sofa, but Johnny stepped into his way swiftly. "I don't think so, fucker." And then fists were flying again, but it was only a matter of seconds before Johnny had the guy's arms pinned to his back. "You aren't going anywhere."   
"Take him to the front," Charlie chimed up. "I called the police."   
   
"You'll regret this," Ryan spat. "Especially you, Dan. I'm gonna come back for you and then..." He was shut up when Johnny shoved him full-force into a wall. There was an ugly sound when Ryan's head hit the wall and he sank down, unconscious. "Oops," Johnny said unfazedly and dragged Ryan's limp form out of the room. Charlie followed him, while Dylan and Jorel rushed to Danny's side.   
   
"Hey." Jorel pulled him up on the sofa. "Are you hurt?" Stupid question, the blond singer was basically covered in blood. Danny groaned and leaned against Dylan who had sat down beside him. "I hit my head pretty hard... and my ribs hurt, but I don't think anything's broken."   
Still, Jorel made sure to inspect Danny's injuries and only when he was completely convinced they wouldn't be dangerous did he allow himself to relax a bit.   
   
"You gave us a good scare there," Dylan said gently and draped his arm around Danny's shoulders while Jorel sat down on Danny's other side.   
"I'm sorry," Danny murmured, his head sinking onto Dylan's shoulder. "I didn't think he'd go this far. I'm so sorry."    
"It's alright, you don't have to apologize," Jorel said. "First we wait for the police, then we take you to a hospital. I don't think it's anything serious but you should get your head checked out."   
"Yeah," Danny answered. God, he sounded so exhausted. "Thank you so much for coming that fast. I tried... I tried to hold him off, but..."   
"I saw," Jorel said. "Believe me, you got him good. That black eye won't be gone anytime soon."   
"I guess I have some explaining to do."   
"Only when you're ready," Jorel said and gently squeezed Danny's shoulder. "All that matters right now is that you're safe. About the rest we can think later."   
   
                                                                         ~~~~~~   
   
It was one hell of a mess. Their tour manager almost had a breakdown when they told them about the incident, the police wanted to talk to Danny several times and Jorel just was glad that the press didn't know about anything yet.   
They took Danny to a hospital that evening and the bus to a mechanic the next day, and once they were both patched up the first wave of the mess was finally over.   
When they came back to the bus, Danny slept for nine hours straight. Jorel told himself that he was lying in his bunk himself for a few hours because he was trying to rest too, not because he feared that Danny might get nightmares.   
   
It was early afternoon and all the guys were in the back of the bus – they had already cleaned up the mess that the fight between Ryan and Danny had caused – when Danny walked in. He was still dressed in just sweatpants and a t-shirt, and he yawned and kept rubbing at his eyes when he plopped down on the sofa next to Jorel.   
"How are you feeling?" the latter asked and looked Danny up and down.   
"I'm alright." He leaned forward and looked around at each of them. "I wanna tell you guys something, and I wanna tell you right now so I get it off my chest, if that's okay with you."   
   
Everyone nodded to signal him to continue.   
Danny nodded and took a deep breath. Jorel noticed that his knee was bouncing up and down and he was fiddling with a bracelet on his wrist.   
"Okay, so obviously this is about Ryan. I just... I just wanna explain to you guys what happened." He sighed. "As I told you, Ryan and I were dating for three years. We were really close, I moved in with him after a year of being together, it all seemed perfect. Until one day when he came home in an awful mood and ended up punching me right in the face." He paused and fixed his gaze on the floor. "He apologized a thousand times, and I let it slip because, well, I thought it was only that one time and I get that sometimes your temper just snaps, even though I hadn't done anything to provoke him... It was stupid, I should have walked out right there and then. But I stayed, and it went back to normal for some time."   
   
"But then it happened again," Jorel guessed, his chest aching for his friend. Danny nodded, not lifting his gaze. "Yeah. He did it again and again, and it just got worse, but it happened so gradually... I didn't even realize how bad it had gotten. In my mind it was all still normal, and I didn't have anywhere to go since he had taken charge of all my finances. I... I was in a really bad place at that time. He had gotten to me with all the shit he talked, I guess, I started believing it all.   
When you guys asked me to join you he totally lost it. I think he was okay with Lorene Drive because we never were big, but when he heard about Hollywood Undead he told me..." Danny broke off, shaking his head. "Let's just say he wasn't happy, but I really wanted this so I didn't let it go."   
   
But Johnny didn't seem satisfied with that. "What did he tell you?" Fuck, he looked about ready to run to the police station and smash Ryan's head in. Jorel couldn't blame him, not at all.   
Danny's voice was strained when he answered, "He told me he'd rather lock me up in the basement and keep me there before he would let me join."   
"What a fucking bastard," Jorel growled, and the other guys swore colorfully.   
"So what happened?" Dylan asked gently.   
"He tried," Danny said, squaring his shoulders. "He was so surprised that I fought back that I managed to run. I stayed with one of the guys from Lorene Drive. They also went back to Ryan's place with me to get my things and I told him I wouldn't call the police if he gave me my money back and never bothered me again. At first he was furious, then he basically begged me to come back, but eventually he agreed.   
I moved into a new apartment and a week later I joined you guys. I never heard from him again until yesterday."   
   
It was deadly quiet for a few seconds. Jorel wanted to say something, but no words would form in his head; the story had stricken him to the core. Danny, kind, gentle Danny, had walked through hell and back and never once complained.   
Shortly before he had joined the band, for fuck's sake, they had known him by then for quite some time, he had already joined them on tour from time to time when Aron couldn't have been bothered to show up. And they had never noticed anything.   
   
"I know what you're thinking," Danny said and Jorel startled a bit when he saw that he was looking right at him. "But I chose not to tell you guys, because I was scared you might reconsider your offer. Today I know how stupid that was of course, but back then I didn't wanna risk it."   
"So you just... kept on going? Without ever talking about it again?"   
   
Danny nodded. "I was fine, mostly. Joining Hollywood Undead was the best thing that could have happened to me, and I just wanted to forget."   
"But you weren't fine," Jorel said. The nervousness, the jumping at loud sounds, the ducking at raised voices, it all made sense now. Danny threw him a bit of a surprised look. "I guess not entirely, no."   
   
"What did he want from you, then?" Charlie asked. "I mean, it's been what now, eight years?"   
Danny nodded. "When he broke into the bus, he told me that he had been together with someone else and they recently broke up. It drove him crazy and he wanted me to come back."   
"Seriously?", Johnny growled. "And after all the shit he put you through he actually thought you would agree?"   
"He didn't particularly care whether I agreed or not."   
   
And that was when it dawned on Jorel. "That fight yesterday, it wasn't just because he wanted to hurt you without any reason, was it?"   
Danny shook his head. "He was trying to take me with him. I managed to hold him off for some time, and then I ran to the back of the bus because I thought it would take him longer to get me out of there, but you guys really came right on time."   
   
Imagining that Danny could have been gone if they had taken just a few minutes longer made Jorel sick to his stomach.   
   
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you all of this earlier," Danny continued quietly. "I know it was stupid and I know I could have trusted you with it, but... joining this band felt like a fresh start. It felt like I had the chance to leave it all behind and I didn't want that stupid part of my life to be everything you saw when you looked at me."   
   
"You don't have to apologize," Dylan said. Jorel couldn't remember ever having seen him so serious. "I get why you wouldn't want to tell us right away. I'm not saying it was the best choice since you obviously weren't okay, but I get it and it's okay."   
"Damn right," Johnny agreed. "But this time you better sue that motherfucker right to hell."   
Danny nodded. "I won't make that same mistake again."   
   
"Yeah," Jorel added and placed his hand on Danny's shoulder. He was still angry, angry at Ryan for doing such a horrendous thing to someone as kind as Danny, angry at himself for never seeing what had been going on. But all that anger didn't matter right now, it would never matter as much as another emotion. "But more importantly, you won't be alone this time. We have your back."   
   
Anger had caused this mess. Anger had destroyed a person and made them wreck another. Anger had hurt and pillaged and ruined.   
They couldn't let it win.   
So Jorel swallowed all the rage inside of him, pushed it deep down until he couldn't feel it anymore.   
You didn't have to be a cheesy fairytale person to believe that love always won in the end. 

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure where all that cheesiness at the end came from. I'm not sorry though.
> 
> Comments are heavily appreciated. Thanks for reading!


End file.
